The road was closed by the locked gate just after Lone Pine Campground. It added an extra 2,000 feet of elevation gain as well as 3 more miles. We didn't encounter any snow until around 9,000 feet. We needed snowshoes around Lower Boy Scout Lake. Continued to Upper Boy Scout Lake to camp. Left at 6 am and summites around noon .
A rope and anchor material was nice for the newer members of our group.

The hike, alpenglow,moon over Mt Muir, summiting Whitney and Muir were great, but were spectacular because I was accompanied by my son, daughter and son-in-law who all sailed up and helped create an embedded memory for us!

Third time's the charm....snowed out on 2 prior attempts, I went with the East Face in the summer heat this year to knock Whitney off my list. Great climb, Mountaineer's Route down. Camped at Upper Boy Scout Lake for 2 nights to summit Russell as well the following day.

3rd time up. As I am sitting here typing I am disappointed we did not take the Mountaineers route. However, we had a couple of people who had never been at any altitude and I felt caution was the best plan of attack

We ascended the mountaineer's route and descended the Whitney trail in a single push. The mountaineer's route is definitely the highlight, and if I did this again, I would avoid the Whitney trail. Another note, is the gully up to the final 4th class section was very loose, and we chose to scramble the class 2/3 rock along the side. This was much preferred.

Very happy to see a summit sunrise on my birthday after hiking a very long version of the JMT (10 extra peaks and 3 hot spring side trips). Was happy to go up with Bob Shattuck, a JMT vet and strong hiker. Great day.

Climbed with my two daughters (No. 10) and a running friend of mine from high school. Started from the portal at 4:00 a.m., per Doug Thompson's advice. Trip routine to Trail Camp, with rain and sleet above. Trail very slick along trail ridge and I recommended we turn around about a mile from the summit. The others decided to head on up as I turned around (this would have been my third time to summit, vs their first). The weather cleared while the others were at the summit and back down to Trail Crest (by the grace of God). Moderate rain at Trail Camp where I waited. Back to the Portal at 9:45, a very long day. As anyone who has hiked this trail knows, the 2.5 miles from Lone Pine lake seem like 5. Whitney was HP 3 of 5 for this trip, which also included Humphreys, Elbert, Harney and White Butte, as well as 12 national parks plus Mount Rushmore.

As of Sunday the road was open to Whitney Portal and the standard route is packed powder/ice for the top 30%. Microspikes are encouraged, hauling crampons was overkill. The guys at "Elevation" in Lone Pine informed us that nobody has broken trail to the Mountaineers' Route yet and there are hip deep drifts to the upper lake.